I intentionally spent money this week. During my own No Spend Month Challenge. I could label it a complete fail, but I’m not. Hear me out.
My daughter gets out of school early on Wednesdays and my son had finals this week, so he was out of school Wednesday afternoon too. They both wanted to go rock wall climbing…and get this – they wanted to go with their mom.
We have a prepaid punch card to the climbing gym, but my kids don’t have all of their own equipment, so I paid $14 for harness and shoe rental.
That’s $14 well spent, in my opinion. There is no way I was going to turn down the opportunity to spend two hours having fun with my kids. They will leave me with an empty nest before I know it.
Ever since I read the book, Your Money or Your Life
Food still isn’t much of an issue. Apparently, I have a food hoarding problem. I love to stock up on the sales each week. But now I realize I stock up too much. This month is a good opportunity for me to see which items I need to buy less of.
Last week I had a hard time looking at the grocery store flyers without scoping out the sales. This week, I was over it.
And I’m eating healthier – partly because I’m trying to recover from the holidays and partly because all I can legally buy is produce. This is something I want to continue beyond the No Spend Month. More produce, less junk.
Plus, I saved time – I literally spent less than 15 minutes grocery shopping this week!
Here’s what we ate for dinner, not including veggies and fruit:
- Fried Rice (our way – bacon, lots of garlic, peas, carrots, onions, egg, and of course rice, soy sauce and a splash of sesame oil)
- Garlicky Potatoes and Sausage
- Taco Whatever (make your own burritos, taco salad, rice bowl)
- Irish Ground Beef Stew (ground beef, onions, potatoes, beef stock, peas, carrots, bay leaf, salt pepper, thickened with cornstarch)
- Mac and Cheese (a rice bowl for me)
- Quesadillas/Fried eggs (made to order)
- Fend for yourself (leftovers)
Lunches were leftovers or ham/cheese sandwiches + fruit/veggie.
Food I purchased:
Entertainment. I find it easy to entertain myself in the winter months without spending any money. We live in the Midwest and it’s winter. And I hate the cold. So, all I want to do is curl up with a good book and a fire.
Here’s what we did:
- Games. Alan and I played Rummikub for the first time in years. Our instructions don’t say how many points determines the winner. So we arbitrarily chose to play to 100 points before we started. After 2 hours, the score was -1 to +1. At that rate, we figure it would take about 8 days for one of us to reach 100 points (with no sleep, and no work).
- Tae Kwon Do class
- Rock Wall Climbing. I’m a complete amateur, but LOVE it.
- Watched movies on Netflix. Have you watched The Big Short? Oh. My. If you have any interest at all in the housing bubble and burst in the mid 2000’s, check it out.
- Enjoyed fires in the fireplace, complete with cozy blankets, books and movies. Is this heaven? No it’s Iowa.
- Kids had friends over
- I blog for entertainment. I’m typing this in my designated free time.
Total Spent
$14.00 (Climbing gym)
$8.60 (Week #1 – home improvement store)
Exceptions:
Food: $21.49 (just the produce and milk so far!)
Last week: Food: $23.77 & Gas: $71.16
Total for the month (besides regular expenses): $139.02
Are you taking the No Spend Challenge? How are you doing?
Bored, but don’t want to spend? Check out these 35 things to do on a no spend weekend
This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, at no additional cost to you, I’ll receive a commission if you buy products through these links. See the full disclosure here.
Centsibly Rich is a participant in the Amazon Services, LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
Great call on spending money for the wall! Cost: $14
Value: Priceless
Even in a “no spend” month, getting something that’s priceless for only $14 is a trade worth making! Great job keeping the correct priorities first!
Thanks, Fritz! Even though I knew I’d have to report the spending, it was sooo worth it to hang out with the kids for the afternoon. Believe it or not, they don’t always want to hang out with mom on their afternoons off! 😉
I realize looking through our freezer today that we haven’t even made a dent in it. Nor in the pantry, other than cookies and pop tarts. I did finally use that jar of Korma sauce last night when I couldn’t find any soy sauce, so we had veggie Korma instead of Veggie Fried Rice. But I may have to keep the limited grocery shopping going through February to accomplish a good clean out!
Jon and I really liked The Big Short (though Jon hated the gratuitous f-word. But he always hates gratuitous cussing.) Scary, and I can see it all happening again. Unfortunately, that seems to be a recurring theme with everything Michael Lewis writes…people gamed the market and then it fell.
No dent in the freezer!? Maybe you’re a food hoarder too, Emily! 🙂 We’re running out of peanut butter and cheese…those could be an issue, as my son tends to go for the protein as a snack. Otherwise, we’re sitting pretty good. I’m thinking about extending limited grocery shopping too. And maybe doing a no spend grocery week each month.
The Big Short was definitely interesting. That level of fraud is very scary, for sure. We lost money in the market, but had been in our house for 7 years, plus our property values weren’t affected too much, so we came through it relatively unscathed, thank goodness.
Oh, I loved Rummikube as a kid! We started Friday fun nights and do 3 straight hours of games and fun activities with the kids. It’s been great. I’m taking advantage of the fact at this point in life, hanging out with us and doing fun stuff is their favorite way to spend time. I know it’s a short lived phase. I’m glad you swooped in to take that opportunity!
We hadn’t played Rummikub in so long – it’s so old the instructions are yellowing. My kids will still sometimes sit down and play a game for an hour or so (or more, if it’s Monopoly), but they used to play for hours when they were younger. You’re right to take advantage of the younger years when their favorite thing in the world is to hang out and play with Mom and Dad! Thankfully, we took full advantage of it when the kids were younger – and have so many great memories of Sundays in the living room in front of the fireplace with games and snacks.
Yes I would have to agree that’s $14 that is WELL SPENT! I’m sure you are well aware how expensive some of the activities with kids can be. Crayola Universe at Mall of America has some insane entry fee of $20 or $25 a person. It’s like WOW are you serious? Throw lunch on top of that and you have an expensive day (yes I know your kids are older but I think this is a great example). Or a weekend away at Wisconsin Dells…not cheap. But anyway really cool to see your success on your no spend month.
Thanks, DC! The climbing gym would have been higher if we didn’t have the punch card, but we do money by having it (plus I own some equipment so we don’t have to rent). Entry to those fun places, like the the Crayola Universe, can really add up! And you typically only stay for a few short hours…costly entertainment, for sure. I always like the annual passes to the science center and zoo. If you go often enough, you can save quite a bit on entertaining the kids.
Nice job! I loved The Big Short (in a how-sad sort of way, of course). I like the strategy of only buying fresh produce to use up what you already have! We’re trying a similar approach in our Uber Frugal Month, and hoping to really slash the grocery bill. I love that you went ahead to rock climb with the kids; it’s so important to find balance between frugality and enjoying time with loved ones. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks Mrs. COD! We are cleaning out the freezer, and starting to make a dent in the pantry too! I am starting a list of grocery “needs” for February – stuff we can get by without, but will need at some point. I’m not sure I’m going to get through the month without peanut butter and cheese though. I wouldn’t have missed that rock climbing afternoon for the world!
Good luck on your Uber Frugal Month! 🙂 Thanks for stopping by!
You have your priorities right, that $14 is well spent. I seem to be on a “no spend” lifestyle – almost every spending decision needs to be under a microscope for scrutiny. I do make mistakes and learn from them. I haven’t tried a no spend month.
Thanks, Michael! I think it’s a lifestyle for me too, for the most part. I haven’t had too much trouble so far – though the food is now starting to dwindle.
What an awesome week, and I agree, $14 very well spent! My kids (at least 2/3 of them) would LOVE wall climbing, we’ll have to do that! Great week, Amanda, thanks for the continued inspiration!
Thanks, MMM! Wall climbing is a blast! Give it a try sometime – they’ll love it. Good luck with the rest of your week…
Only $139 for the month which also includes Rock Climbing is pretty remarkable. Good job. Spending less on food is one of my top goals for 2017! I will have to check back for money saving food tips.
Thank you! I’m really happy with the way the month is going…I’ve spent a little this week, but am on track to spend exponentially less than a typical month. Lots of lessons learned in the process.
Food is a great place to cut expenses – it’s really flexible spending that is easy to lower, especially if you shop the sales and cook. I wrote a post on starting a grocery price book a while back that you may find helpful.